Overseas Fellowships
Paediatric Surgery Training Jobs in Sydney, Australia
The Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick is one of two children’s hospitals in Sydney, Australia. The Toby Bowring Department of Paediatric Surgery is a busy unit, caring for children from birth to age 16. The hospital has a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at the co-located Royal Hospital for Women.
Our unit provides multi-disciplinary subspecialty care for children with congenital colorectal conditions (Platypus clinic), oesophageal atresia (TOF clinic), childhood tumours, vascular anomalies (VTAC clinic), thoracic conditions including chest wall deformities and inflammatory bowel disease amongst others.
We have a keen interest in minimally invasive surgery and push the boundaries where possible.
We have two types of funded positions available:
Surgical Fellow
The surgical fellow must have completed training in paediatric surgery and be looking for further experience prior to starting consultant/attending practice. They will be responsible for supervising the registrar group which is composed of both accredited (RACS SET program) and unaccredited trainees. The surgical fellow may choose to focus on a certain subspecialty area and will be encouraged to engage in research while they are here.
They will usually be the “second on call” providing back up for one of the more junior registrars. Call duties are roughly 1-2 days per week and one weekend per month. The fellow is not required to stay on-site when on-call.
Unaccredited registrars
As well as accredited training registrars, the department employs 3-4 unaccredited registrars who are yet to be accepted on to a formal training scheme. The job is suited to candidates with at least three years post-graduate experience and are geared towards a career in paediatric surgery. They will take part in a 1 in 6 on call roster and be expected to attend operating lists, surgical outpatient clinics and attend to ward patients. More junior trainees will have adequate opportunity to become proficient at laparoscopic appendicectomy and scrotal exploration. More experienced candidates will be exposed to more complicated cases, as determined by their level of skill. There is also scope to be employed on a two year contract that will include experience in NICU and adult general surgery.
Our hospital is located close to the famous eastern beaches such as Bondi and Coogee, the city centre and the Sydney Cricket Ground and Sydney Football Stadiums. We would expect that trainee surgeons who work in our unit would leave having had a rich clinical experience but also have had an enjoyable time in our city.
If interested please email Dylan Wanaguru ([email protected]) for more information. Our recruitment starts around June but applying even a year in advance to allow for registration and relocation is often advisable depending on your situation.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Recent comments from trainees who have completed overseas fellowships
Melbourne, Australia
“The overseas year at the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) in Melbourne is a fantastic experience for trainees, especially in the build up to the FRCS exam. It had given me an opportunity to experience a different healthcare system during this time of turmoil in the NHS. There is a 1 in 6 rota. The case load is heavy and your logbook will be between 600 and 800 cases with a good mix of daycase and index cases (expect around 35 – 40 neonatal index cases per annum)
RCH is both a tertiary and quaternary centre; it has a large neonatal unit, PICU and cardiac centre. It is the designated trauma centre in Melbourne and offers the full range of surgical services including surgical oncology, thoracics, HPB and complex urology.
There is a daily teaching programme, which includes amongst others a dedicated weekly neonatal grilling session and an hour of spot diagnoses from clinical photographs given by Professor John Hutson. The children’s hospital is very close to the centre of Melbourne and during the year there will be opportunities to see the Australian Open Tennis, F1 racing, head to the inner city beaches, become a coffee connoisseur, embrace your inner hipster and explore Australasia.
Above all the team has been great and is used to welcoming foreign trainees on a regular basis. I have hopefully formed some life long friends and mentors which I will get the chance to catch up with at various meetings and conferences during my career.”
Toronto, Canada
Sick Kids Hospital offers two fellowship programmes for International Candidates:
- Neonatal Surgical Fellowship
- Trauma Fellowship
Neonatal Surgical Fellowship
The Neonatal Surgical Fellowship is one year in duration. Candidates must have completed their adult General Surgery training, or an equivalent amount of training, in their home country.
The Neonatal Surgical Fellow is responsible for managing the surgical patients in the NICU in collaboration with the General and Thoracic Surgical Team and the Neonatology Team.
The Neonatal Surgical Fellow has to round on the neonatal surgical patients each day, identifying problems and developing a daily plan, performing whatever procedures are required, participating in family and multidisciplinary meetings and acting as a liaison between the surgical staff and the neonatal team.
The Neonatal Surgical Fellow takes on average 1 in 5 call in rotation with the General and Thoracic Surgery Fellows. During these calls, the fellow will cover the inpatients on the General Surgery service and consults in the emergency department and the wards, and will also serve as the Trauma Team Leader. The Fellow will do any emergency cases that are performed during these calls. The elective cases will be performed mainly by the General and Thoracic Surgery Fellows.
Trauma Fellowship
The Trauma Fellowship is one year in length. The Trauma Fellow is the Trauma Team Leader (TTL) during weekdays and when on call for the General and Thoracic Service.
The Trauma Fellow must respond to Code 50 activations within five minutes. He/she must provides comprehensive TTL care to traumatized patients from trauma room through final disposition and handover to admitting service. In addition the TTL must handle phone calls regarding transfer of traumatized patients and facilitate their transfer to Sick Kids Hospital.
During the Fellowship, the Trauma Fellow takes on average 1 in 5 call in rotation with the General and Thoracic Surgery Fellows. During the call, he/she will cover the inpatients on the General Surgery service and consults in the emergency department and the wards, and, of course, will also serve as the TTL. Operative experience is primarily based on “on-call” exposure. The elective cases will be performed mainly by the General and Thoracic Surgery Fellows.
Further information regarding the Toronto Fellowship can be found here:
https://www.sickkids.ca/en/care-services/clinical-departments/general-thoracic-surgery/